


The Architect and the Morrow Days

by reminiscence



Category: Keys to the Kingdom - Garth Nix
Genre: Gen, Poetry, Sonnet, ffn challenge: make a pledge challenge, poetry collection, word count: 1001-1500 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 08:39:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9313925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reminiscence/pseuds/reminiscence
Summary: Each of them felt something towards the House and their power over it and the Outer Realms.





	1. The Old Architect

She came before the seven morrow days;  
the Architect who created the House  
and the other realms and its twisting ways  
fallen upon her fabric like a louse  
and she tired of being the feeding ground  
for a world under her total command  
and so, to seven choice strings she bound  
the space, the time, and the grains of sand.  
But the seven to whom she gave her will  
tore it apart and refashioned her home.  
She'd prepared though and waited, until  
she was truly freed from that dome  
from the world that so depended on;  
her will fulfilled, she'd passed the baton.


	2. The Old One

He was a poor fool who had thought forever  
he could love: a sun that would never dim  
its flowering flames – but she was too clever  
to be satisfied on the inner rim  
of a world too in awe of her to change  
itself, to amuse her, to provide essence  
in a life that sat too far in her range.  
She needed to let go, and he was first:  
the man who'd thought he could love on and on  
and keep her happy inside Paradise.  
He could live a simple life: future won  
but she was too wild for that to suffice.  
She chained him to the clock she stared oft at,  
waiting for the hands to strike the mallet.


	3. Mister Monday

He was always a quiet, gentle one,  
never in a rush, always slow to start  
but giving his all. He's second to none  
working himself to the ground as an art.  
But then sloth struck, engraved into his heart  
and it was so ill-fit, it made him sick.  
The structure crumbled. The world failed to start  
and Lower House came apart, brick by brick.  
He lost motivation, caring and hope,  
becoming a virtual unseen king  
that ruled behind old set rules, tent and rope  
as he went on a walkless, sleeping binge  
until he was freed from his infliction  
but that also came with his eviction.


	4. Grim Tuesday

He is greed. He wants more than he can have  
and in doing so, he takes too much  
and a flood comes and snatches all he has  
and it's all nothing before one last touch.  
He sees beauty as too shallow a thing.  
He collects the riches and drops the rags.  
He sees anything pretty and will bring  
to his treasures, even if he drags  
them and chains them up, so they can't escape  
from him. But his greed has left him blinded  
to the fact that he can only change shape,  
not create from scratch like the high-minded.  
And so, for his greed, he lost his gamble  
after an almost too long preamble.


	5. Drowned Wednesday

She was hungry for peace, so had good  
intentions, but they all went awry still.  
Majority ruled and she was driftwood  
and gradually footed a hefty bill.  
She waited, and ate, and hungered, and starved,  
waiting for the tides to finally change  
so she could escape the hunger that carved  
her soul hollow. And he could arrange –  
if not for her, then at least for her sea:  
the dominion she could no more keep –  
her freedom, and a new ruler to see  
the nothing that lurked there, inside the deep.  
And then she can slumber in that nothing  
and leave things in the hand of the new king.


	6. Sir Thursday

He was a fighter that made his own wars  
when there was none already in progress  
because he could not leave his swords in stores  
and leave his army without their sword dress.  
His army is always maintained and there,  
ready to fight any enemy seen  
even if they are created within,  
though also, none of them would ever glean  
a plan to overthrow his reign and win.  
He searches for an enemy to beat:  
his realm, the House, and the secondary realms  
will all feel his strong sharp sword, and his heat  
as his great fighting prowess overwhelms  
anyone who gets too close to his crown:  
his badge that he won’t ever lay down.  



	7. Lady Friday

She wants of those she can’t get  
feel for herself… and isn’t it unfair?  
that they, from the original House, beget  
only what the House gives, and humans share  
such a wide experience of feelings:  
despair and hope, hate and love, sorrow and joy  
and only through these so fleeting dealings  
can she feel even a bit. It’s a ploy  
she knows; she’s addicted to its great taste  
but her great pool will run out if she keeps  
on drinking so, and she wants, in endless haste  
an unlimited full chalice for keeps.  
She’ll drink until she’s satisfied, and she,  
even for her territory, will agree.


	8. Superior Saturday

She has her sights set on the highest place:  
the ceiling of her towers, the vast sky  
they won’t reach unless they pick up the pace.  
It would be much faster if they could fly.  
But the lord of the sky was so clever.  
She had all the magic, except that one  
that would let her fulfil her endeavour  
of reaching that tall place above the sun.  
She’ll storm the Incomparable Gardens  
and seize them all for herself: the best one  
by skill, not by blood, and she’ll strike the wardens  
who defend it and look to lord like sun.  
She’ll be the lady instead, at the top…  
though her ambitions wind up a big flop.


	9. Lord Sunday

He was far too proud, and too lazy too  
to sit on his throne and ignore the world  
and think that, no matter where the winds blew,  
his gorgeous gardens would stay unfurled.  
It didn’t matter if the House crumbled  
so long as his gardens stayed beautiful.  
And so, below them all, Nothing rumbled  
and people screamed. He was undutiful  
to them, to the Denizens of the House  
he lorded over, though he left the work  
to others, and if needed he would douse  
everything else, because it was clockwork.  
The world would return if the gardens stayed.  
It was the way that the world had been made.  



	10. The New Architect

He thought he was an ordinary boy  
until he almost died, and so was saved.  
His extra time was too short to enjoy  
because a new world opened, that he braved.  
He was a normal boy. To save the world  
was a bit beyond his scope, but he’d try  
because they wouldn’t do, they only twirled  
their keys and crown and watched Nothing wash by.  
There’d been a will to save all of them  
but they’d ignored it, and rightfully so  
because, to fix the world, to sew its hem,  
he destroyed, and brought to them the black crow  
that reset the world from zero, to start  
because Denizens could not create art.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing a sonnet sure is different to writing freeverse. First time I've tried it, though it was a fun challenge. :D I used the Engish style, so the rhyming structure is ababcdcdefefgg, a total of 14 lines with each line being 10 syllables long.
> 
> This collection will cover The Old Architect, The Old One, the seven Morrow Days and the New Architect/Arthur. So that's 10 sonnets in total (what have I gotten myself into).
> 
> Written for the Make a Pledge Challenge (style = English sonnet) at The Poetry Craze.


End file.
